Seacoast talks of attacking Syria

Ralph G. Fatello, the commander of American Legion Post 35 in Hampton, said he is skeptical about President Barack Obama's plan to take military action against Syria.

Jeff McMenemy

Ralph G. Fatello, the commander of American Legion Post 35 in Hampton, said he is skeptical about President Barack Obama's plan to take military action against Syria.

"The problem I have personally is, are these air strikes going to help rebel groups that are affiliated with al-Qaida?" Fatello said during an interview Sunday. "Are the groups that end up getting the benefit of this affiliated with the masterminds of the Sept. 11 attacks, with the anniversary coming up?"

The Obama administration geared up for the biggest foreign policy vote since the Iraq war Sunday by arguing that new physical evidence shows the Syrian government and the Assad regime used sarin gas in a deadly August attack against its own countrymen.

Fatello acknowledged Obama is in a tough position, saying, "You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't."

"Using chemical weapons flies in the face of the whole international stand against weapons of mass destruction," Fatello said. "But it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to me. What's the benefit of this other than to save face, because he (Obama) kind of painted himself in a corner."

The United States must respond with its credibility on the line, the country's top diplomat said.

Secretary of State John Kerry gave a series of interviews on Sunday news programs outlining the latest information the administration has received about the Aug. 21 attack in the Damascus, Syria, suburbs that the United States says killed 1,429 civilians, including more than 400 children.

Obama had seemed prepared to take military action, but then shifted course and decided to seek authorization from Congress first. But Fatello noted the United States has little international support for military action and most Americans have tired of the country's involvement in the Middle East.

"There's a very large percentage of Americans who don't want to get involved in another Middle East conflict," Fatello said. "It's such a gray area with the Middle East. There's no end in sight."

He also pointed to the cost of taking military action.

"Each one of those cruise missiles are probably $1 million to $2 million," he said. "That's an expensive little foray. It's hard to make the case for that."

Alynna J. Lyon, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, said there is extensive precedent for the United States to take military action when it comes to protecting human rights.

"There's a lot of precedence for ... going in and protecting civilians from mass atrocities," Lyon said during an interview Sunday.

She said such action is usually most successful when the United States acts as part of an international force, such as it did during the NATO bombing of Kosovo in 1999.

But Lyon acknowledged the United States' "record of humanitarian intervention is inconsistent," noting sometimes it gets involved, and other times it doesn't, such as in the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Several key elements have to exist for the United States to act, but perhaps the most important one is having the support of the American people, she said.

"Having some kind of collective public support is very helpful, but there has to a real clear case made," Lyon said. "It's clear to me that the majority of the American public feels the case hasn't been made clearly yet in Syria."

Lyon said many countries are reluctant to get involved in such instances, particularly because when the United States took military action in Libya in 2011 based on humanitarian grounds, it ended with a regime change.

And unlike Libya, Syria is a close alley of Russia, one of the original United Nations countries, which would veto any action against Syria.

But the political science professor stressed she believes any military action taken in Syria will be limited.

"It would make absolutely no sense for some kind of boots-on-the-ground operation," Lyon said. "No one is talking about this at the highest level." She also contends Syria represents a national security threat to the United States, not because it can bomb the United States with chemical weapons, but because it can threaten Israel, one of the United States' closest allies.

"The other thing that's important is with potentially weapons of mass destruction, you want to get on top of it as quickly as you can. They are serious concerns, whether it's the Assad regime or someone else," she said.

Still, Lyon said she believes Obama has a lot of work to do to convince the American public, and then Congress, that military action is a good idea.

"This could have been done more elegantly," she said. "And Americans are war-weary, there's no doubt about that."

Scott Quilty, a veteran who served in the Iraq War and lost part of his right arm and right leg when a bomb exploded near him, said simply, "They can't gas kids without some kind of response."

Quilty, who grew up in New Hampshire and graduated from the University of New Hampshire, said he doesn't want to see any "boots on the ground" in Syria, noting he "shares the war fatigue."

Asked Sunday if more money needs to be spent domestically instead of in the Middle East, Quilty said, "I think it's time. I think we've spent enough in terms of dollars and lives and limbs there, and there's bridges falling apart and things we need to use those funds for here."

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